Crime doesn't pay

 Himari explained that each magic spell she had encountered either on the chains that had bound her, or the ropes on the girls, and on the spells they were using to block Himari’s and Duncan’s connection had markers that marked them as different. These markers that she found made it easy to track down each mage. She then weaved a few spells one of them being that she could easily track them anywhere they went and she knew exactly what each was doing. She figured combining this spell with Duncan’s teleportation magic would make it easy to teleport to each of the mages and capture them.” Duncan was impressed with her idea and they tested it out. The spells were successful. The mage hadn’t even felt them coming due to another spell Himari used to mask their presence. The mage had seen Joan, Cedric, Duncan, and Himari and had surrendered on the sport. The next few hours they spent finding and arresting each mage. Some of the mages, especially the groups of three and four mages together would sometimes try to fight but didn’t stand a chance against Cedric and Himari. Others saw Joan and Cedric and knew they didn’t stand a chance and surrendered peacefully. Others saw Duncan the Demon Lord and started weeping and throwing themselves at his feet begging for mercy. Some of the mages tried telling them everything in exchange for freedom. Some of the mages even tried telling them what duke, archduke, and archduchess they worked for and that they would rescue them soon, not realizing the people they thought were going to rescue them couldn’t. These people couldn’t save them since they were already under arrest. The last mage they went to arrest was dancing with a branch as he hummed, caressing the branch fondly. They had explained they were there to arrest him and his crimes. The man only nodded and asked “Is Barkus under arrest too?” Cedric coughed to cover his laughter and Himari had to ask with a straight face “Did Barkus help you commit these crimes or commit other crimes.” Joan was facing the wall biting her fist to keep from laughing and Duncan had to concentrate on what they would have to do after all this arrest to take his mind off this absurd situation so he wouldn’t laugh. The mage looked at Himari and said “Barkus didn’t do anything bad. He is a good boy. I can’t just leave him alone. He and I go everywhere together. Besides, who will feed him?” Cedric and Joan excused themselves and went outside where they laughed uncontrollably. Himari though some miracle said with a straight face “Fine Barkus can come with us but if he or you break any rules or do anything wrong I will be forced to separate you two.” The mage nodded happily promising her that he and Barkus would be on their best behavior. They put the chains on him and arcus before putting them both in a storage box. Himari and Duncan’s eyes met and they started laughing uncontrollably. They laughed until their stomachs hurt and tears streamed down their face. Once they had stopped laughing they stood staring at each other in silence. Himari and Duncan started moving towards each other until they stood in front of each other. Duncan reached out and cupped Himari’s cheek. There connection had returned and their emotions were flooding through to both of them He asked in a gentle tone “How were you during all this? I know as soon as I couldn’t sense your emotions I panicked. I thought I might have lost you.” Duncan’s voice broke at his last statement. Himari placed her hand on top of his hand that rested on her cheek and said “I felt the same. I knew you were safe after a little searching but having your emotions inside me felt unsettling.” She grinned and said trying to lighten the mood “I never thought I would miss our connection, especially after you used it against me during my two weeks of purgatory.” After making Duncan smile with that statement she continued in a serious tone “I am glad to have our connection back. I was a little worried I would never see you again. If I am being honest I was more than worried, I was terrified. I realized that I had been hiding from my emotions because I was terrified of losing the people I care about like I lost my parents. I realized that fear though was also going to leave me with regrets. I want to talk to you and tell you how I feel. I also want to tell Iris how I feel about her. I can’t get over the fact that I have been so stupid letting my fear of being sent back to my world; my fear of rejection; and my fear of losing you keep me from allowing myself to feel my emotions and share them with you. I have been locking my emotions up too scared to admit them to anyone especially myself. I…” Cedric and Joan chose that moment to walk in making Himari’s words trail off. Duncan dropped his hand like he had been caught doing something he wasn’t supposed to. Joan and Cedric looked between Himari and Duncan before Cedric said “Are we interrupting something? Should we wait outside until you two are ready?” Cedric was already turning to walk out the door again when Himari spoke “No.” she cleared her throat and said in a clear voice “No, we should head back to the castle now. We have a lot to do with all these arrest and it is going to be a lot of paperwork.” Himari looked at Joan and Cedric and said “I hope you two are ready to work. We have a lot to do. We might even have to recruit some help.” Joan groaned and said to Cedric “I hate paperwork. I thought my work would be over after helping apprehend these criminals, but now she wants to torture me with paperwork. I should be rewarded not punished.” Cedric said “Maybe we can quit or better yet we can fake a cold.” Himari said “You know I can hear you, right? You both will get a reward but only after all the work is completed.” Both Cedric and Joan groaned in unison. Himari looked up at Duncan and said “Let’s go home. I promised Iris I would come home and I am ready for a shower and to hold our girl.” Duncan smiled happily at Himari’s use of “our girl” and said “Me too.” Duncan teleported them all to his castle and they all stopped at the holding sales to put all the criminals they had apprehended. They tried talking Himari out of using her magic to increase the security of the holding cells, but of course she didn’t listen. Duncan joked that he doubted even goddesses would be able to break them out of their cells after Himari was done. They all then headed for the entrance to the castle where they found the girls and the rest of the castle staff waiting. Iris was the first to see them and she smiled widely when she saw Himari and dashed towards her and through herself into her arms. Himari almost stumbled backwards with the force but caught herself. She lifted Iris up into her arms and held her tight and finally felt relief. Her family was safe. She looked at all the people standing around her with relieved and happy smiles plastered on their faces and felt herself returning the smile. All these people are my family and they are safe. She dropped a kiss on Iris head and said “I told you I would do everything in my powers to come home to you.” Himari took a deep breath and said the words she hadn’t spoken in years as she looked down into Iris purple eyes “I love you.” Those purple eyes filled with happy tears and she threw her arms around Himari’s neck again and said “I love you too mommy.” Those words again from this small child filled Himari’s heart to the brim and Himari felt her eyes misting over in happiness. She thought she caught site of some of the staff gathered around wiping their eyes. She even caught Jameson wiping tears from his eyes. She and Jameson’s eyes met and he gave her a warm smile and said “I know I can say for all of us Lady Himari we are happy that you have returned home safely.” The other stuff members nodded their heads and murmured their agreements. Himari smiled at them all and said “I am very happy to be home.” The next few days were chaos and a lot of paperwork. There were multiple conferences with the leaders of different nations. Using information from Viper and his men along with some information from the Dukes, archduchesses, mages and Archdukes they were able to do joint sting operations to arrest more people that were involved in the attacks against the Demon Lord and his kingdom. They were able to find out about planned attacks against the Demon Lord and his Kingdom. They even found out about two assassination plots one against the Demon Lord and the other against the king of Vitriolio and they were able to prevent them from happening. On top of that the other ring leaders of the underground slave trade were given up in exchange for lighter punishments and they were able to catch some of them. A few had known it would come and had gone into hiding. The king of Vitriolio had decided to use this time to change the laws banning slavery in his kingdom, while many were happy with his decision others were furious with him and his decision. It was causing some unrest within the Kingdom of Vitriolio. The other nations backed the king’s decision and offered to back the king if civil war broke out. Everything that had happened had caused the NFU leaders to meet and make some changes and upgrades to their agreements and rules and regulations. Duncan and Himari used the opportunity to talk to each of the rulers and offer them trade agreements which most happily accepted with a few saying they wanted to think about it with promises to let them know their decisions in the future. All the criminals had been punished for their crimes by all nations. The maids and two soldiers were also being punished for their crimes. All loose ends were tying themselves up nicely.